Aug. 11 Informative Webinar Scheduled

The League this week announced a new tool available for its member cities — the League of California Cities Health Benefits Marketplace™ (HBM). The HBM is designed to help cities address rising OPEB liabilities and healthcare costs by offering a variety of health benefit solutions for active employees and retirees on a user-friendly platform. This tool provides cities with a flexibility lacking in traditional group coverage medical plans by decoupling and unbundling active employee from retiree costs, which is key to reducing OPEB liabilities. Mark your calendars for a free informational webinar on Aug. 11.

League Shares Alternative Concepts with Housing Committee Leadership

Since Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his by right housing proposal, which would pre-empt local discretionary land use approvals of specified housing developments by having all such approvals be considered “ministerial” actions, the League has been a vocal opponent because it would eliminate opportunities for public input and project-level environmental review and restrict design review which are necessary to ensure public transparency, accountability and achieve quality development.

A coalition of over 60 environmental, labor, tenants-rights and social justice groups have also opposed this proposal for similar reasons.

The California Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) has launched a program to provide pro bono professional planning assistance to financially constrained municipalities and community groups throughout California and Baja California. Known as CPAT (Community Planning Assistance Team), the program pairs expert planning professionals from throughout California with residents and other stakeholders from communities with limited resources to solve specific local planning problems. It is an intensive one to three day effort. The volunteers receive no compensation, but the community is expected to cover direct costs for transportation, meals and overnight accommodations (if required).